Someone's in your shed, nicking your bike... what to do?

[gaijintendo]

I have a driveway doorbell thing, and a motorbike disc alarm... and a bell on my shed, so if someone was to come along and try and poach my bike or excess of loft insulation, I would be able to hear about it if I am home.

My question is, what am I supposed to do after noticing them?

1. Call the police.
2. Hide?

I could theoretically impeded their exit by sticking a bin up against the gate or something like that - which would probably force them a different route, but any kind of interaction is a risk, isn't it? So am I expected to watch them ride away?

 

[MikeG]

Take a photo. Even better, take a photo in such a way that they can see you taking a photo, yet you remain in a place of safety.

 

[Drago]

Call the feds. After that, depends on so many variables and impact factors...

 

[winjim]

Call the feds. After that, depends on so many variables and impact factors...

999 or 101? I mean it's not exactly a life threatening emergency but an immediate response would be ideal. Is 999 proportionate if they're only in a shed and not the actual house?

 

[Drago]

Crime in progress, offenders at or near the scene, 999. If its 2 am then you may not get a timely response if the 6 officers covering your county are tied up elsewhere, but its the number to call.

PS - I didn't make that number up. The number of officers on duty overnight in most areas is criminally small, yet Monday to Friday office hours the car parks will be heaving. Mate of mine who transferred to D&C regularly finds himself the only response officer covering the rural patch of an entire county overnight. Towns fare slightly better, but then the scrambled egg give priority to picking up drunks over actual crime, so the response a victim of crime receives may workmout no more prompt.

 

[ufkacbln]

999 or 101? I mean it's not exactly a life threatening emergency but an immediate response would be ideal. Is 999 proportionate if they're only in a shed and not the actual house?

Are you scared?

Would it be appropriate to say that they have a big stick, jemmy / lever in their hand and you are worried they are going to break in to your house?

999

 

[rojobe]

Crime in progress, offenders at or near the scene, 999. If its 2 am then you may not get a timely response if the 6 officers covering your county are tied up elsewhere, but its the number to call.

PS - I didn't make that number up. The number of officers on duty overnight in most areas is criminally small, yet Monday to Friday office hours the car parks will be heaving. Mate of mine who transferred to D&C regularly finds himself the only response officer covering the rural patch of an entire county overnight. Towns fare slightly better, but then the scrambled egg give priority to picking up drunks over actual crime, so the response a victim of crime receives may workmout no more prompt.

I can confirm the lack of Police officers out and about as being minimal. When my Dad died two policemen turned up in a car (Thames Valley) and were most concerned that they then had to stay till the coroner turned up – I think they said they were the only car outside of Reading, covering the whole area!

 

[Welsh wheels]

What I'd like to do - Rush outside and defend my property and stop them from taking my prized possessions. Do the whole hard man act.
What I'd actually do - Cower inside and call the police. Take down their descriptions. Maybe call them names out the window.

Though I have to say I imagine robberies when the occupants are in must be pretty rare.

 

[NorthernDave]

Definitely call 999 - crime in progress.
Then lean out of your upstairs window taking photos of the scumbag - it might not stop him, but it's fairly certain that your local NPT will recognise him when they get involved and can go along and invite him for a chat.

I'm concerned about the claimed lack of police officers in some parts of the country overnight. As you'll have seen from 'Traffic Cops - Under Attack' on Channel 5, up here in Yorkshire there are dozens of bobbies driving round in BMWs all night with camera crews in tow...

 

[Sara_H]

Run out naked screamin and shouting clutching a baseball bat and swinging it around in a way suggestive of the fact that you're well used to striking with it and not in a baseball game.

 

[DRHysted]

My advise is to illuminate the area as much as you can whilst filming it and calling the police.

Unfortunately I know my reaction would be to charge out shouting and screaming, if it's in the garden there'd be six dogs behind me excited to see what all the fuss is about, if it's out the front I'd be on my own. I once pursued a group of scrotes that were removed car mirrors for over a mile, before I came to my senses and returned home (we haven't had any mirrors removed since then though).

 

[rojobe]

It's happened a couple of times to us. First time I found the lock jemmied but nothing but a bike light stolen – or maybe we disturbed them but I never saw anyone. Second time my wife heard the lock being broken at 2am. I had a very bright LED bikelight on the bedroom windowsill and shone it down the garden – three hooded toe-rags nonchalantly came out the shed, climbed back over the fence and casually walked off up the road – all the time illuminated by my 1200 lumens light on full power. I am pretty sure I know who they were VERY local.

I now have bramble and thorned rose cuttings against the fence on the inside and have some metal poles planted into the ground to train a honey suckle around – but they would probably impale anyone who jumped off the fence into the garden in the dark, which is a bonus. I have shed alarms that sound off in the shed and a second that sounds in the house, plus motion lights that come on and I've put roundheaded bolts on the door hinges and padlock latches – with re-inforcing on the inside. Every now and then I let the alarm go off in the shed for a few seconds, just to let certain neighbours know they all still work.

 

[fossyant]

Kick the whatsits out of them. The police here won't turn out as there are too few available.

 

[screenman]

Send the wife out, after all there are times she can be quite scarey. In truth phone the police, although due to lack of numbers last time we did that it took them 2 1/2 hours to come out.

 

[Vantage]

My bike means too much to me to leave it in a shed. It lives in the hall under the stairs so I can admire it when I walk past
However, when I had a shed when I was married, I had an air rifle which I kept under the bed. Powerful enough to break through the bark on a tree. My dad has it now but I wouldn't have hesitated to use it back then.
These days I'd probably call the police and wait it out. Whether I'd intervein and sort the thieving ba***rd myself while waiting for them is something I'd decide when the moment comes along.